


Deal with the Devil

by TundrainAfrica



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt Hiro, Protective Tadashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-01 12:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4020469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TundrainAfrica/pseuds/TundrainAfrica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When mourning becomes too much for him, Hiro finds himself resorting to prayers and deals to bring back the brother he lost. The devil may have had pity on him but he never promised to let Hiro go unscathed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My main focus on Ao3 as of now! Do tell me what you think!

I would die for my brother.

When worded like that those words make me look like the most selfless person in the world but when I tried to look beyond that, when I tried to really understand how I felt did I realize that I wasn't at all selfless. On the contrary, I was selfish. I was the worst kind of selfish, the self-sacrificing kind that tries to justify all his or her actions and make it look like he's trying to protect people when all he's trying to do is protect himself from the emotional pain of loss, sadness and guilt.

Still, as all those events occurred one by one, the explosion, Tadashi's death, the funeral and my self-imposed house arrest, I still found myself repeating the same mantra again and again and again.

I would die for my brother. I would die for my brother. I would die for my brother.

I would die so my brother could live again.

I started to feel that I was denying something as I said those words but even, I was denying that.

I was a robotics prodigy, an engineer, a scientist. I was supposed to be a realist and in reality, no one ever goes back to life. What's dead is dead. Whoever dies, stays dead.

But even with reality slapping my face every day as I wake up and see my older brother's empty bed, I still wanted to find a way to bring him back. I'd give up my life if I had to. And that made me selfless, selfless is good.

In the end, my "big brain" still wasn't enough to find a way to bring him back to life. I ended up relying on the religion Aunt Cass long ago tried to instill in us. Being a robotics prodigy, I learned early on that gods and science don't mix.

That is until I realized the limitations of Science. It can never bring anyone back to life.

And that was how I found myself on the way to an abandoned shrine in the outskirts of San Fransokyo. I know it was a bad idea when there were hundreds of other better shrines in the center of the city but that's the thing,they're better. Thus, more people would write messages then hang it in the wishing tree then god will have no time for my request.

Using a State-of-the-art GPS I invented a long time ago, I was able to run through all the possible shrines and wishing trees in San Fransokyo and the one which caught my attention was an abandoned one called 'Torihikiji',temple of deals and bargains.

It took a total of sixteen stops, three train changes and a gazillion alleyways. After a while, I started to question if it was worth it. The area made my skin stand on end as I walked through it. It was late afternoon, the sun was still up yet I was getting the heebeejeebies. It was when I looked around did I realize that I was in a condemned part of town. The houses were dilapidated and abandoned, and the occasional buildings I passed were dark and gloomy, entrances were sealed shut. Others were taped shut with 'do not cross' tape and signs saying they were to be demolished soon.

If that temple and shrine is in this area, that means it would be gone soon too.

So it's now or never. I told myself as I made my way through the ghost town. I stopped in front of a small temple sandwiched between two houses. The kanji characters were fading but the 'ji' kanji for the temple and part of the 'hiki' were still readable.

The wishing tree was the first thing I noticed when I entered the temple. I decided to leave that for later though instead, I made my way to the shrine in the middle. I threw some spare change into the offertory box and went through the motions of the Japanese prayer.

Bow twice. Clap twice. Bow once. It has been a while since I've done that but to my surprise, I was still able to do it as if it were second nature to me.

"Bring my brother back. I'll give you anything, take my soul, my life, whatever. I just don't wanna have to live like this."

I don't really know if saying my prayers out loud would help me case but that was still worth a try. On my way out, I stopped by the wishing tree.

I knew there wouldn't be any more wooden plates to write my wish on so I brought a paper which already had my wish in block letters.

BRING HIM BACK. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M WILLING TO GIVE UP.

I hung it on an empty part of the tree and bowed again before leaving the temple.

I was hoping and praying for a god to catch my attention on the way back. A sign that they got it, or at least a message. I should have known though from the start that these kinds of things have never happened and never will. Gods will never bring anyone back to life, especially for a mere mortal like me.

I made a run for the bedroom as soon as I arrived home. I was in no mood to be invited to dinner by my Aunt Cass. I was going to spend the next few hours scolding myself for losing my mind the past days, believing Tadashi would come back and actually going to a temple and requesting for such.

Before I knew it, I had scolded myself to sleep.

"I'm a minor Japanese deity that deals with well… deals…" The voice then snickered, probably amused at his own idea of a pun.

It was only when this figure in a trench coat appeared to me was I able to put more thought into my surroundings. It was mostly darkness and blur around me. It made me dizzy to look anywhere other than the figure in front of me so eventually I gave up on looking at anything other than him. That was probably what he wanted anyway.

"So, you know what I want…" I managed to say.

"Trust me kid, you've been louder than a lot of my other clients."

"So this is real…"

"As real as the religious beliefs of an isolated monk, so… you want your brother back?"

I felt like my breath got caught in my throat. I couldn't really put into words how I felt at that point. I felt this surge of excitement and wonder but at the same time this horror and for some reason, I wanted to cry.

"Yes please!" I instinctively bowed at the figure. "What would you want in return though… My life?"

"You'd gladly give your life for your brother's, won't you? The self-sacrificing type?"

"Sorry, I don't feel like taking a life at the moment. Show me how much you want it."

My eyes widened in disbelief. If he didn't want my life, what did he want? Is there really more I can give?

"How much I want it? I want it so much, I have no words to describe it."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "I don't want words. I want action Hiro. You're Japanese, I'm pretty sure you know the ultimate position of self-deprecation…"

He didn't have to go on. I knew what he was talking about. I've seen Aunt Cass do it a few times, especially that one time someone found a roach in her salad. Aunt Cass had done the Dogeza then given them a year's supply of free meals. Tadashi had done it too once when he accidentally hit someone in the head with a soccer ball. I've screwed way more than them but my pride has never allowed me to kneel down and bow in that position and ask for a favor or forgiveness. It just wasn't me.

But really, what is thirty seconds in that position compared to a lifetime without Tadashi? I knelt down in front of him and bowed. "Onegaishimasu."

"That's more like it. I like you, kid and I really like what you're asking for, a far cry from the riches, the knowledge, power, revenge. So I'll be asking much less from you compared to an average client.

"So what do you want?"

"I want your word."

"My what?"

"Your word?"

"Wait a minute…" I frowned. This thing was getting more and more frustrating by the minute.

"I swear an oath to- Repeat after me!"

" I swear an oath to…"

"Forget everything that happened as of now, move on with your life and pretend this conversation didn't happen.

"Forget everything that happened as of- Wait, what?" I looked up to see that the figure was gone and was replaced by this mini tornado that was quickly making its way to me.

There was no time to move. It swallowed me up and everything went black.

I woke up thrashing. I had the craziest and longest dream I could remember. An average person dreams at least five dreams a night but only remembers at the most two but, I remembered a lot.

I don't really know if they were actually five dreams or just a long one compressed into one.

It all started with a fire that killed Tadashi. There was this long period of depression, there was Tadashi's robot, I was a superhero then I ended up making a deal with this thing to bring my brother back to life. I sat up to see my brother getting ready his things for school.

"Wow, you actually woke up early. Guess you're that excited for your first day huh?" Tadashi gleefully said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

I climbed out of bed and out of instinct, ended up hugging my brother from behind.

"You okay Hiro?" My brother asked, looking taken aback by that sudden bout of affection.

I blushed. "Well, just had the craziest dream brother, you wouldn't believe what happened."


	2. Autumn's Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, sorry for the wait. It's been in my other folder for so long >

I was never the type to be superstitious. I grew up with robots, math and science, not old wive's tales or legends but when Hiro told me about his dream, I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable as he narrated it.

But actually, who wouldn't at the least be a little horrified to know that they died in a dream and were brought back to life because their little brother made a deal with some ominous creature. Who wouldn't be worried to know that a family member whose safety means the world to them would be more than willing to sell his soul to Satan so that he could bring someone back to life?

We both got over it eventually since university took a lot of our time and attention. Hiro assimilated into the bustling university lifestyle pretty fast and I could see he was enjoying it.

He did his homework, attended classes and would always make time to meet up with me, Gogo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred after school. He would keep his high spirits until dinner time, never forgetting to tell Aunt Cass about the new professor who spent more time getting mad at students than actually teaching them, the one professor who always gave free cuts or some of his classmates who he would sometimes have casual bot fights with. For a while, life seemed perfect.

By late summer though, I started to notice things go downhill.

In SFIT, professors usually give major projects, the equivalent of a thesis, by summer break.

It was around that time when the walkways of SFIT would be empty except for the occasional pizza delivery man since everyone was either cooped up in their SFIT laboratories or at home working on it there. Hiro was quick to join them, locking himself up in the garage in the house, working on upgrading his microbots or working on blue prints in our room.

At first, I attributed his silence to the immense pressure he was probably feeling for being a child genius. It wasn't hard to believe. Hiro probably impressed a lot of professors with the microbot presentation he made the day he got the acceptance letter.

That was what I thought until he opened up to me one night though. He said he had been experiencing nightmares the past week. He never told me what they were about exactly, only vaguely mentioning how it was probably related to the dream he ad before the first day of school.

That revelation brought back the memories for both of us. I only had the narration Hiro gave me to remember it as. Hiro, though, was probably reliving the whole thing. To think though that I was already that worried. If I felt like this, I don't think I could have imagined how my younger brother was feeling.

After that night, I started to understand his isolating himself a bit more. He was a genius and he knew it. With his attitude, he would never consider working his butt off days on end on useless homework. Hiro did that as a distraction, a way to keep his mind off the thoughts that were haunting him.

Aunt Cass and I still made attempts to talk to him though during the summer break. It started off with small talk. I'd pass by the garage, say a short hi and ask how his project was doing. Hiro only replied with one liners, it was always either an okay or good, sometimes the occasional "the reactors not working properly" or the "coding was wrong." After a while, he got fed up and ending up telling both me and Aunt Cass over dinner that he needed space.

Trying my best to be the good brother., I gave him his "desired space," convinced Aunt Cass to do the same and generally, I didn't talk to him unless he talked to me. That didn't mean that I wasn't keeping an eye on him anymore. On the contrary, I've been paying more attention to his actions lately. I noted his hours spent in the lab, in the room, his bedtime and how much he was eating which in fact was very alarming for someone who did as much as him.

He did not join us for a meal the whole summer so god knows what he was eating, more than twelve hours a day were spent in the garage and the rest was him sleeping.

There were times I felt so tempted to just tell him off, lock him out of the garage or drag him off to some place like the beach for the sake of bonding. It irked me to know that he was spending his summer cooped up in the house. Eventually though, I realized that obsessing over my brother was not healthy for me too, it meant that my brother wasn't really getting the 'space' he needed so in the end, I gave myself a break. I decided to hang out with my friends in SFIT first and start on my own major project to be submitted at the end of the year. Hiro may be going through all that but life still went on.

I wasn't expecting to regret that though when fall came around.

Along with the drop in temperature came flu season and the start of our second semester. We had both immersed ourselves in our own studies. For me, the work load was hectic, I was balancing eight classes a week, working on Baymax and still being able to talk to friends and family.

If it wasn't for Aunt Cass though, I wouldn't have noticed how much I wasn't really seeing.

"It's about Hiro…" She started as she handed me a plate of lasagna.

"Why?" I frowned in thought. When she brought it up, I started to feel my stomach turn. I had taken the 'give Hiro space' too seriously for my own good, more importantly his own good. I wanted to believe that eventually he did put his life back together as fall came around.

Aunt Cass's face though told me otherwise. "I'm worried about him."

"Has he been going to school?" I asked, as I noted that I haven't seen him much in the campus.

She nodded. "As soon as he gets home, it's straight to the garage or bedroom though."

With my hectic schedule, I would usually get home late and I would already see Hiro asleep on the bed.

"Does he eat?" I asked.

She sat on the chair and rested her face on her palms. "That's another thing, I don't think he's eating enough. All he'd eat is one bite sometimes or two."

I tried to recall the minimal times I saw Hiro this week. Is he losing weight? I thought to myself as if asking myself that will help me remember it. I started to feel another twinge of guilt when I realized that memories of Hiro recently have been blurry. So much for a caring big brother.

"I'll call him down for dinner." I told Aunt Cass as I stood up and made my way to the bedroom. The only way I could make it up to my brother was to start over and try to be a good big brother again. First things first, I had to start talking to him again.

I opened the door to the room to see that it was dark, no lights were on and someone snoring. I followed the sound to see that it was coming from the lump on Hiro's bed which I was sure was him . I noted that it was only eight o'clock though. Why is he in bed so early?

"Hiro, you okay?" I asked as I went closer to his bed. It shamed me to say that this was the first time I actually gave him a closer look since summer. There really were signs that he was losing weight. His cheekbones were more prominent and there were bags under his eyes.

I was torn. Part of me wanted to wake him up and force him downstairs to eat. The other part of me wanted to let him rest because he looked too tired for someone who's only supposed to be fourteen years old.

I'll have a lot of time to talk to him tomorrow before school. I told myself as I reached out to brush Hiro's bangs from his face.

All I intended to do was brush the bangs from his face then go back down to Aunt Cass and finish my salad. That plan went down the drain though when I felt Hiro's forehead.

He was burning. From there, it looked like things got worse or, I was starting to notice more. The fever explained why Hiro was huddled in one side of the bed. It explained why he had the two pink spots on his pale cheeks. Most importantly, it explained the unnatural snoring.

Hiro was not snoring, he was wheezing. And as soon as I realize that, I was going through our closets muttering curse words to myself. Where was his nebulizer, his asthma inhaler? For gods sake, why do I leave Baymax in SFIT? I mentally scolded myself for just putting it away just like that. He hadn't had an asthma attack in years though. So how did it progress to this so fast.

After a few minutes, I started to accept the fact that the nebulizer and the inhaler were definitely not in the room.

What now? My head was swimming and I felt so lost. Do I go down to Aunt Cass and tell her about this or do I wake Hiro?

Or I could do both. I wanted to bang my head against the wall for taking more than a few seconds to actually make up my mind. But at that point, I realized that I had absolutely no luxury of time.

"Aunt Cass!" I shouted to the door, before hurrying back to Hiro.

"Tadashi! Hiro! Are you guys okay up there?"

I heard Aunt Cass' footsteps as she climbed up the stairs. My eyes though were trained on my younger brother.

"Hiro. Open your eyes." I sat on Hiro's bed and cradled his head on my lap.

Among all the wheezes, he was still able to react with a short whine. That was a relief for me.

"Are you guys okay?

I looked behind me to see Aunt Cass in the doorway, her face a mixture of confusion and worry.

"The nebulizer. Did you throw it away?"

She shook her head. "No it's in the garage I think. Why? Is Hiro okay?" She narrowed her gaze on my younger brother.

"He can't breathe…"

"I really thought his asthma was gone for good…" She sighed. "Gimme a minute."

Hiro turned his head to the side, his face to my sweater. "Come on Hiro, open your eyes. Can you talk?"

Hiro nodded as he opened his eyes. He squeezed my hand and said something too softly for my ears to hear but seeing his lips move, I was able to make out what he was saying.

No hospital. That wasn't the first time he told me that. That was the whole reason we bought the nebulizer in the first place. to save us a bunch of emergency room trips during Hiro's sick years.

"Don't worry, we've handled this many times. All we need is the nebulizer."

Hiro just shook his head and squeezed my hand. It was probably getting more painful for him.

I looked back to the doorway as If doing just that would magically cause Aunt Cass to appear. Where is she?

"Hiro you're gonna be okay, please don't panic."

He didn't talk, or more likely he probably couldn't. He just kept on shaking his head and squeezing my hand as if he was trying to tell me something important.

For a moment I was tempted to force it out of his mouth. It turned out I didn't need to because when I looked back, Aunt Cass was already there and looking like she was going to tear her hair out.

"Did one of you take apart the nebulizer?!"

"Hiro…" I looked back at my little brother to see that he was avoiding eye contact. In other words, he was guilty. "For a smart kid, you can do some really stupid things."I knew that He probably wasn't expecting the asthma to come back when he took apart the nebulizer. That didn't stop me from being pretty pissed off though.

I looked back to Aunt Cass, ignoring my younger brother's pleading look and hand squeezes. "Get the car keys , we're going to the emergency room."

**Author's Note:**

> I have two other chapters finished. I'll post them soon! Do leave a comment or some Kudos!


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